I received an old ML150 G5 server and am using to learn about HP servers and evolution of the range.
The server has a HDD cage with backplane (part 459191-001). In the cage are SATA drives only <2TB (no SAS). I have connected the backplane directly to the System I/O SATA ports 1-4 with a SFF-8484 32 Pin to 4x SATA 7 Pin cable (I believe is equivalent to part 459190-001).
I was not sure if the backplane can only be used with a controller in PCI Express slot, but am trying this way because there is a diagram, page 60 of the HP ProLiant ML310 G5 Maintenance and Service Guide under heading "SATA hard drive cabling" clearly showing connection from backplane direct to the mainboard SATA ports. I know the ML310 is not exactly the same as the ML150 but its using the same cage and backplane and cable...
However no drives are found, via IDE, AHCI or RAID. The CD drive is found, and SATA drives are found when I completely bypass the backplane and connect individually to the SATA ports on the mainboard, so I know the SATA ports are working.
So, is it possible to connect SATA drives to system SATA ports via the HDD backplane with ML150 G5?
Forgive for asking about such an old server, but I hope there is someone here who remembers... Though I do not expect to use the hot-swap feature of the cage it would be nice to use for SATA drives connected to the motherboard ports.
For bonus question: Can anyone say what the 2 jumper pins and 2 connectors on the top-right of the backplane are, or point me to documentation? A good image is here.